NASA is preparing to make a big announcement today that could reveal the future of the United States’ next mission to Mars.
The Mars Return Sample (MRS) aims to bring Martian soil back to Earth, but the mission’s progress has been uncertain since a damning report last year criticized the “unrealistic budget.”
However, today’s announcement has raised hopes that NASA can reveal the schedule and budget for the next stage of this challenging scientific mission.
Interestingly, NASA says the samples could finally help answer one of the biggest questions remaining in space exploration: whether or not there is life beyond Earth.
NASA said: “Returning the samples will also help NASA search for signs of ancient life.”
Today NASA will make a big announcement about the future of the Mars Sample Return mission. This mission aimed to use several vehicles (pictured) to bring back material from Mars.
At 18:00 BST (13:00 EDT), the US space agency will host a media conference call about the MRS mission.
You can follow MailOnline’s coverage for all the updates as they happen or watch the announcement live on NASA TV live.
The MRS mission began in February 2021 when NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on the Martian surface.
Since then, Perseverance has traveled alongside the Ingenuity Mars helicopter around Jezero Crater, collecting rock samples.
The original plan was that NASA would send a secondary lander to collect Ingenuity’s samples and bring them back to Earth for analysis.
These samples are believed to have extremely high scientific value and could help scientists discover what the weather and climate on Mars would have been like in the distant past.
NASA said: ‘NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting compelling scientific samples that will help scientists understand the geological history of Mars, the evolution of its climate, and prepare for future human explorers.
The Mars Sample Return mission began in 2021 when the Perseverance rover (pictured) landed on the Martian surface to collect rock samples.
The rock samples could help scientists understand the geological history of Mars (pictured) and even answer whether the planet was once home to ancient life.
It said: Returning the sample will also help NASA in the search for signs of ancient life.’
So far, Perseverance has collected 24 samples from the planet’s surface, including 21 rock cores, two regolith samples, and one atmospheric sample.
Most of these samples are located at Perseverance, including those believed to be of greatest value, but other samples have also been cached nearby.
However, the mission has been on shaky ground since last year after it was criticized by a damning independent report.
He criticized the MSR for having “unrealistic budget and schedule expectations from the beginning.”
The report’s authors also wrote that the mission “is not designed to be led effectively.”
This was followed almost immediately by major budget cuts to keep NASA out of the MSR mission.
The Senate and House appropriations committee approved a new budget that included a $454,080,000 (£364,190,323) cut for the mission.
NASA’s original timeline suggested an orbiter would launch as early as 2027, followed by a lander in 2028.
In this schedule, samples would return to Earth in 2033, but it is not yet known how this has been affected by the reduced budget.
Today, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate, will give the first update on the status of the project.
Perseverance has now collected 24 samples (pictured) from various points in Jezero Crater.
The mission to develop a return vehicle (pictured during testing) was criticized for being over budget and poorly organized; Today’s update could reveal the future of the mission.
His announcement is expected to lay out a plan to meet the existing schedule, although no details have yet been released.
At the time of the report’s release, NASA said it would make a recommendation for “a path forward for Mars sample return within a balanced overall science program.”
The space agency also said it would delay confirming the mission’s final budget and schedule until the review had been completed.
As NASA is convening a conference to discuss the mission, we may see the first concrete details of the next mission to Mars.
If so, this would mark an important step forward for the agency’s ambitions for the planet.